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The passage of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution provided Black individuals equal protection under the law
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The passage of the 15th Amendment granted Black American men the right to vote and paved the way for additional political freedoms for the African American community
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Crucial to the fight for equality for African Americans in America because here the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional which paved the way for racial integration within the education system. -
Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama because she refused to move to the back of the bus to free up seats for white folk. However, as word of her arrest spread across the nation, it ignited outrage from the African American community, and Parks became recognized as an icon in the civil rights movement. -
Former President Eisenhower signed into law the first major civil rights legislation since reconstruction, and it enabled the prosecution of any individual who prevents another person from voting. -
Black and white activists mounted a Greyhound bus in Washington D.C. and traveled the American South in protest of segregated bus terminals while testing the 1960 Supreme Court decision in the Boynton v Virginia which declared segregation of interstate transportation facilities unconstitutional. This became a key factor that led to the Interstate Commerce Commission issuing new regulations that prohibited segregation in interstate transit terminals. -
Crowd of 200,000 people consisting of individuals of all races was organized and led by civil rights leaders such as A. Philips Randolph, Bayard Rustin, and Martin Luther King Jr congregated in Washington D.C. for a peaceful march to enforce civil rights legislation and establish job equality for everyone, and became a key event in the civil rights movement as Martin Luther King Jr. gave his iconic "I Have A Dream" speech which eventually became the slogan for equality and freedom -
Legislation signed into effect by President Lyndon B. Johnson that guaranteed equal employment for all, limited the use of voter literacy tests, and allowed federal authorities to ensure integration within public facilities. -
The assassination of former Nation of Islam leader and founder of the Organization of Afro-American Unity Malcolm X in 1965, and civil rights leader as well as Nobel Peace Prize recipient Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, ignited outrage from the civil rights movement leading to riots and looting ultimately putting great pressure on the Johnson administration to push through additional civil rights laws.
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600 peaceful demonstrators who took part in the Selma to Montgomery March in protest of the killing of Black civil rights activist Jimmie Lee Jackson, and to influence legislation to enforce the 15th Amendment, were beaten and teargassed by Alabama State Police as Alabama authorities blocked the Edmund Pettus Bridge preventing the demonstrators from crossing.